FALL RIVER — With just 34 students between two homerooms, Doran Community School’s first class of eighth-graders may have been small in number.

But they came up big in other areas, like maturity and sense of community, according to teachers, administrators and students.

The group graduated Monday night in a small ceremony held in the auditorium at Matthew J. Kuss Middle School. Many of them had spent most of their academic careers at Doran, while others joined the class in later grades.

They will now continue on to other schools, including B.M.C. Durfee High School, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School and Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton.

“Everyone cares for each other,” Guerrette said. “I have been here since Day One.”

She said her experience at the school “has been an amazing one.”

Doran converted from a traditional elementary school to a full kindergarten-to-Grade 8 model as part of its turnaround plan in 2011.

That conversion came after the school’s designation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as a Level 4, or underperforming, school. Last fall, the department, which recognized Doran had made gains academically, promoted the school to Level 2. This fall, Henry Lord will become the second Fall River school to follow the K-8 model.

Guerrette attributed the school’s — and students’ — gains to the new model.

“In fact, it’s what makes us the best,” she said. “We had a bad reputation. But in three years — just three — we turned it around. Small schools like ours do great things.

She turned her attention to the students. She called them the Class of 2022, saying that if they continue onto a four-year college after high school, that would be the year they would graduate.

“Some of you have spent your entire nine years of school with us. At the Doran school, you learned how to read, how to write. Some of you joined us along the way,” Pontes said. “Some of you may be apprehensive about leaving Doran. We are proud to send you off to high school because we know you’re ready. You are ready for the next part of that journey.

“Be confident in the person that you’ve become. You’re building a future, one step at a time. This is just the first graduation of several.”

Page 2 of 2 - Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown noted the students’ accomplishments during Doran’s turnaround, telling students they are among the city’s “best and the brightest.”

“We expect you to continue the same high expectations,” Mayo-Brown said.

Daniel Ferreira, the class’s math teacher, and others likened the class to a family. He wore the same tie he had on for the first day of class last September. It was a tie decorated with scoops of different ice cream flavors.

After the ceremony, he said the class “set the bar.”

“This will be a hard class to beat,” Ferreira said. “Our job is to challenge the next class.”

“This is a very unique and special group,” said Katya Rucker, the class’s English language arts and social studies teacher. “I never encountered such a mature and close-knit class.”

Prior to the ceremony, Ferreira and Rucker were in the hallway, lining up the students. Girls wore dresses. Boys donned button-down shirts and slacks, and many wore ties for the occasion.

Ferreira and Rucker both said they had so far enjoyed teaching within the community school model, which is different than the traditional middle school setting in which they’ve taught during years prior.

“You get a chance to see your future students every day,” Ferreira said. “You start developing relationships early.”

Students and parents expressed nervousness and excitement about the next step on their journeys.

Having spent the first nine years of her academic career at Doran, Guerrette will go on to Durfee next fall.

Her father, Christopher Guerrette, said he was nervous about the transition, jokingly referring to the high school as “the big fishbowl.”

When asked why he chose to keep his daughter at Doran instead of transferring her to a traditional middle school, he said, “The actual reason is she was doing really well there.”

Trinity Parsons will go on to Bristol County Agricultural High School next fall. She said is excited but, at the same time, will miss the friends she made at Doran.

“This really was the first year as a full community school. The parents went into it blindly. They really took a chance,” said Pontes, who added that she had confidence the model would work, based on her prior experience teaching in kindergarten-to-Grade 8 parochial schools.